Why It’s Crucial to Track Online Marketing Success

Is your website profitable? Are your online campaigns successful? How sure are you of your answers to these questions?

We speak with business owners and executives every week who are enthralled by the possibilities of search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click marketing, and other tools, but aren’t doing a good job of keeping score when it comes to tracking their wins and losses. That’s understandable, given that most of the people we work with are on tight time constraints and web analytics can be overwhelming. However, it’s also a little bit shortsighted.

Having a plan in place for your website, and being able to track the results, is absolutely crucial to your success and profitability. Let’s take a look at how you can do that, step-by-step…

Know What You Are Trying to Accomplish

When you first plan out your online marketing campaigns, you should take care to imagine what a successful outcome would be. Is your target a certain percentage increase in new leads? Is there a revenue goal you want to hit?

Without these pieces of information, it’s difficult to know whether you’re doing the right things to promote your business on the web or not. Even worse, it’s impossible to say whether they are working to your satisfaction.

You didn’t hire a business web design team to build your site for fun. Think carefully about your online marketing goals and be able to express them in a way that is measurable and time-specific.

With just a few lines of code added to each page on your website, you can keep track of incoming visits, page views, and even conversions. You can watch to see how potential customers move from one piece of content to another, paying close attention to which items interest them and when their attention takes them elsewhere.

As with anything on your website, the proper setup and configuration is crucial. It isn’t enough to simply have Google Analytics or a similar piece of software installed. You want it set up so that you can monitor conversions and see reports that yield powerful insights.

Evaluate Your Progress Over Time

When you know what your goal is, and have the right analytics tools in place, optimizing results gets a lot easier. You simply watch to see what customers are responding to and find the missing items from your online marketing campaigns.

For instance, you may discover searchers who arrive at your site are looking for something you don’t currently offer. Or, you could learn that a disproportionate number of prospects leave your site after viewing a particular form or download. You may even discover that some users are getting “stuck” on your pages without finding what they need.

In each case, you can compare your goals with the available analytics to find the path forward. However, can’t happen unless you have already taken the first two steps to set firm goals and track your progress.

Need Expert Online Marketing and Lead Generation Help?

The creative minds at Graphicmachine in Kansas City can help you find the answers to your most pressing web design, online marketing, and lead generation questions. Contact us today to setup a free consultation and website review!